Abdelbaki Es Satty

Abdelbaki Es Satty (1977-17 August 2017) was a Moroccan-Spanish Salafist imam and Islamic State cell leader. He radicalized several youths in Catalonia, and he was the mastermind of the 2017 Barcelona attack. However, he died in an accidental explosion the day before the attack was carried out by his cell.

Biography
Abdelbaki Es Satty was born in Morocco in 1977, and he was a criminal and Islamist for several years. In 2006, he was implicated in sending jihadists to fight against the US Army in Iraq. Es Satty was later convicted of drug trafficking in Spain, leaving from the El Castellon prison in 2012. While he was in prison, he was befriended by Rachid Aglif, who played a role in the 2004 Madrid train bombings. In 2016, Es Satty sought work as an imam in Belgium, but the elders of a Brussels mosque rejected him because of his radical and polarizing approach. Es Satty returned to Spain and became the imam of the Salafist mosque in Ripoll, Catalonia, and he became the leader of a cell of Islamic State sympathizers. On 17 August 2017, he died when 120 butane and propane canisters and TATP accidentally exploded in his house; the bombs were supposed to have been used in an attack on the Sagrada Familia church.